B) Apparently this is a better-marketed expansion of the long-established maloader, which already works for many of the use cases that people bring up when they hear about this project (such as running parts of Xcode).
Designing live performance environments in Max is awesome, but laptops just are not designed for the rigors of the road. They are delicate creatures that stand in awkwardly, at best, for musical instruments. Max running on the Receptor would be incredible, and hopefully not too challenging considering the environment is largely self-contained with very few external dependencies.
What features does pd not have that you need? (Alternatively, if you really do need max/msp, for the price of the receptor you could buy a pair of mac minis and have redundancy if one of them dies on the road -- obviously the receptor isn't just a computer, but laptops aren't the only alternative).
It is not OS X, but the Classic Macintosh System translated on the fly to native code. Because it didn't get enough funding, and lack of interest, and very few buyers it sort of went DOA. I am sure if they had enough funding they could have modified it to OS X translation. Maybe someone should help them do a Kickstarter project?
Having worked on a translation layer for a large API (my project Alky converted Windows games to run on Linux and OS X), building something like this solo is just asking for pain. An open source project with solid direction is much more likely to end well. Also, Executor really couldn't be changed to support OS X; totally different architecture, no processor emulation, etc.
At the end of the day, it's really just API translation; not a technically difficult project, just an incredibly intensive one.
I remember it well. I still remember the Webcrawler/Yahoo/Altavista search that took me to it. I just had this inkling that it was something that HAD to exist. Sure enough, it did. And the demo version was awesome. Even more awesome was the clean room techniques they used to develop it.
Well this OS X emulation layer is not ready for prime time yet. Don't expect it to run 100% of your Mac OS X apps.
I'd really rather see more projects that focus on cross compiling XCode source code on Linux, so that companies can take their OS X software apps and cross compile them for Linux with little to no changes in the source code. I'd much rather trust native Linux code than OS X emulated code.
I'd also like to see some 'byteswap' projects that take the machine language of OS X apps and convert them to Linux format by converting each API or system interrupt, etc from OS X to Linux for apps that don't have the source code anymore.
Also anyone remember the Apple Darwin Project? I guess it stopped releasing binary install ISOS and instead releases the source code. You got the core of OS X right there, and it would be a good place to start to see the migration from Darwin to Linux right there.
Can someone with a better understanding of this project Summarize it's goals? For example, would I be able to run Xcode on a Linux machine using this project when it is mature?
I think it's the same idea that Wine has for win32 applications, but for OS X applications instead: Provide a binary executable loader and an implementation of all the standard frameworks and libraries, so you can run unmodified mac apps on x86/x64-based Linux.
Edit:
For your Xcode example, in short, yes. (Although - that's probably one of the most difficult apps of them all to bring up, since it integrates and depends on iTunes, mobiledevice/mobilesupport libraries, debugger tools etc.)
What is the purpose of this, other than just to see if it can be done? I can't think of any software that would be worthwhile emulating that doesn't already have a Linux or Windows version (which is covered by Wine), other than xcode.
From my /Application folder (the italic ones are vital to my workflow): AirServer/AirParrot, Charles, Coda, CodeBox, Day One, Kaleidoscope, Keynote, Messages/FaceTime, MindNode Pro, Mou, Numbers, OmniFocus, OmniPlan, OmniGraffle Professional, Opacity, QuickSilver, SourceTree, TextMate, Transmit, VoodooPad, Xcode (and InterfaceBuilder and Instruments)
Most of them have Windows/Linux equivalents, but for me aren't nearly as good as Mac versions (your mileage certainly varies).
I run a Linux desktop and a Mac laptop. Alfred is the biggest reason I enjoy my OS X computer more. Huge thanks to anyone who can suggest a Linux alternative.
>What is the purpose of this, other than just to see if it can be done? I can't think of any software that would be worthwhile emulating that doesn't already have a Linux or Windows version (which is covered by Wine), other than xcode.
It's not about having a "Linux or Windows version", it's about how good OS X's version is. For some people, there are NO alternatives.
[+] [-] saurik|13 years ago|reply
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4893022
B) Apparently this is a better-marketed expansion of the long-established maloader, which already works for many of the use cases that people bring up when they hear about this project (such as running parts of Xcode).
[+] [-] bengl3rt|13 years ago|reply
http://cycling74.com/whatismax/
On one of these:
http://www.museresearch.com/products/receptor-vip.php
Designing live performance environments in Max is awesome, but laptops just are not designed for the rigors of the road. They are delicate creatures that stand in awkwardly, at best, for musical instruments. Max running on the Receptor would be incredible, and hopefully not too challenging considering the environment is largely self-contained with very few external dependencies.
[+] [-] retroafroman|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] stephencanon|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dsl|13 years ago|reply
This is what you are looking for: http://www.powermax.com/parts/code/PM_CU_XS
[+] [-] orionblastar|13 years ago|reply
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Executor_%28software%29
It is not OS X, but the Classic Macintosh System translated on the fly to native code. Because it didn't get enough funding, and lack of interest, and very few buyers it sort of went DOA. I am sure if they had enough funding they could have modified it to OS X translation. Maybe someone should help them do a Kickstarter project?
[+] [-] daeken|13 years ago|reply
At the end of the day, it's really just API translation; not a technically difficult project, just an incredibly intensive one.
[+] [-] nobleach|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] frozenport|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] bane|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] orionblastar|13 years ago|reply
I'd really rather see more projects that focus on cross compiling XCode source code on Linux, so that companies can take their OS X software apps and cross compile them for Linux with little to no changes in the source code. I'd much rather trust native Linux code than OS X emulated code.
I'd also like to see some 'byteswap' projects that take the machine language of OS X apps and convert them to Linux format by converting each API or system interrupt, etc from OS X to Linux for apps that don't have the source code anymore.
Also anyone remember the Apple Darwin Project? I guess it stopped releasing binary install ISOS and instead releases the source code. You got the core of OS X right there, and it would be a good place to start to see the migration from Darwin to Linux right there.
[+] [-] akurilin|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] japhyr|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] 0x0|13 years ago|reply
Edit:
For your Xcode example, in short, yes. (Although - that's probably one of the most difficult apps of them all to bring up, since it integrates and depends on iTunes, mobiledevice/mobilesupport libraries, debugger tools etc.)
[+] [-] zkirill|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] sneak|13 years ago|reply
Obviously it's more overhead but it functions today.
[+] [-] rednukleus|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] pooriaazimi|13 years ago|reply
Most of them have Windows/Linux equivalents, but for me aren't nearly as good as Mac versions (your mileage certainly varies).
[+] [-] daeken|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dbecker|13 years ago|reply
I run a Linux desktop and a Mac laptop. Alfred is the biggest reason I enjoy my OS X computer more. Huge thanks to anyone who can suggest a Linux alternative.
[+] [-] sneak|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] pretoriusB|13 years ago|reply
It's not about having a "Linux or Windows version", it's about how good OS X's version is. For some people, there are NO alternatives.
[+] [-] bobowzki|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|13 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] Hello71|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Tloewald|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] nobleach|13 years ago|reply
It STILL is in the very early alpha stage and may actually have been abandoned.
[+] [-] ChrisClark|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] frozenport|13 years ago|reply